Downloaded by [University of Defence] at 21:28 19 May 2016 ROUTLEDGE LIBRARY EDITIONS: POLITICS of ISLAM
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Downloaded by [University of Defence] at 21:28 19 May 2016 ROUTLEDGE LIBRARY EDITIONS: POLITICS OF ISLAM ISLAM IN THE MODERN WORLD Downloaded by [University of Defence] at 21:28 19 May 2016 This page intentionally left blank Downloaded by [University of Defence] at 21:28 19 May 2016 ISLAM IN THE MODERN WORLD Edited by DENIS MACEOIN AND AHMED AL-SHAHI Volume 7 Downloaded by [University of Defence] at 21:28 19 May 2016 First published in 1983 This edition first published in 2013 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 1983 Denis MacEoin and Ahmed Al-Shahi All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN: 978-0-415-64437-2 (Set) eISBN: 978-0-203-07906-5 (Set) ISBN: 978-0-415-83078-2 (Volume 7) eISBN: 978-0-203-38138-0 (Volume 7) Publisher’s Note The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint but points out that some imperfections in the original copies may be apparent. Disclaimer The publisher has made every effort to trace copyright holders and would welcome correspondence from those they have been unable to trace. Downloaded by [University of Defence] at 21:28 19 May 2016 ISLAM IN THE MODERN WORLD Downloaded by [University of Defence] at 21:28 19 May 2016 This page intentionally left blank Downloaded by [University of Defence] at 21:28 19 May 2016 Islam ,nthe Modern World Edited by DENIS MacEOIN AHMED AL-SHAHI Downloaded by [University of Defence] at 21:28 19 May 2016 CROOM HELM London & Canberra © 1983 Denis MacEoin and Ahmed AI-Shahi Croom Helm Ltd, Provident House, Burrell Row, Beckenham, Kent BR3 1AT British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Islam in the modern world. 1. Islam I. MacEoin, Denis II. AI-Shahi, Ahmed 297 BP161.2 ISBN 0-7099- 0523 - 8 Downloaded by [University of Defence] at 21:28 19 May 2016 Printed and bound in Great Britain by Biddies Ltd, Guildford and King's Lynn conTENTS Preface ..........•.. " ...... , ...... , ..... , ...• vii Introduction .•........ " ..•......•...•..•. , .•• ix ISLAM AND THE WEST ........ " ..••.......... 1 W.l\1. Watt ACCOUNTING FOR THE ORIENT •...•.....•.. ' 9 B. Turner ISLAM AND JUDAISM ........................ 27 •T. F .A. Sawyer ISLAM AND THE FEMININE ......••............ 36 R.W.J. Austin SUFISM AND PSEUDO-SUFISM 49 L.P. Elwell-Sutton SUFISM IN MODERN SUDAN 57 A. S. AI-Shahi BEKT ASHIS IN TURKEY ..........•.•••....... 73 J.D. Norton THE SHlcl ESTABLISHMENT IN MODERN IRAN 88 D • M. MacEoin Downloaded by [University of Defence] at 21:28 19 May 2016 A MOVEMENT OF RENEWAL IN ISLAM ••.•..•.. 109 D. Hopwood ISLAM AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT .••.•.... 119 R. Wilson ARCHITECTURE IN THE ISLAMIC WORLD 132 M. Danby Index .•••...••••.••••...••...••••••........••. 142 v This page intentionally left blank Downloaded by [University of Defence] at 21:28 19 May 2016 PREFACE The present collection of papers is based on a series of public lectures given in the University of Newcastle ['pon Tyne in January. February and March 1982. under the auspices of the Public Lectures Committee of the University. The lectures were organized through the Department of Religious Studies. which had recently been enabled to establish a lectureship in Islamic Studies with funding from the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Higher Education. The aim of the series was to bring before a general audience certain aspects of modern Islam that are either unknown or misunderstood by many non-Muslims. if not by many Muslims I:lR well. It was recognized from the beginning that we could not attempt to provide anything like a comprehensive introduction to the subject as a whole. but we did hope that the facets we were able to present would help members of the public to create in their own minds a rather broader picture of concepts and events than that normally available. There were. of course. a great many other topics on which we might have touched. but the limitations of time and resources forced us instead to single out a small number of themes connected to a number of central issues. Following the completion of the series. it was decided to publish the orignal lectures together with one or two additional papers touching on similar themes. This is not Downloaded by [University of Defence] at 21:28 19 May 2016 primarily a book for scholars though scholars should find in it much of interest but for the general reader who already has a basic knowledge of Islam and wishes to expand and deepen it in respect of the modern situation. If it serves to make more familiar to the public at large certain neglected yet significant aspects of a much misunderstood subject. it will have fulfilled its purpose. The system of transliteration used will be familiar to Islamicists. Unfortunately. the practicalities of setting the camera-ready copy on a word processor have meant that it has not been possible to incorporate either macrons or sub-linear dots in the main text. but these have been vii Preface supplied in the index. Well-known place and personal names have usually been left in their popular form, while Turkish words are given in their modern spelling. Raised 'c' () indicates the letter eayn , a harsh guttural consonant which the beginner may eonvey by a glottal stop. The editors wish to express their thanks to the Saudi Arabian lHinistry of Higher Education for financial help in the pUblication of this collection; to John Sawyer for his advice and assistance in the co-ordination of the funding; and to Mrs. Hazel Moodie and her staff at Northumbrian Computer Management, Newcastle, for their patient and efficient handling of so much unfamiliar material Denis MacEoin Department of Religious Studies Ahmed AI-Shahi Department of Social Studies University of Newcastle Upon Tyne Downloaded by [University of Defence] at 21:28 19 May 2016 viii INTRODUCTION In recent years, events in the Islamic world .have captured the attention of the general public in the West to an unprecedented degree. Media coverage of these events - central among which has been the Islamic revolution in Iran -- has served to stimulate widespread interest in Islam as a religion and a way of life, but, with few exceptions, newspaper and television reports have tended to reinforce existing prejudices or to confirm popular misconceptions -- a point emphasized by Edward Said in his recent study, Reporting Islam (1981). There are, of course, well-informed journalists whose reports on the Islamic world are frequently illuminating, but the problems of simplification and stereotyping that beset the popular media in most areas are greatly exacerbated here by the underlying ignorance of the public at large concerning things Islamic, an ignorance which extends to languages, geography, politics, history, religion, art, music, and much else. Ignorance of things Islamic may not, perhaps, be a whit inferior to ignorance of things Russian, Chinese, Japanese, Hindu or Buddhist, but it is still disproportionate to the importance of Islam in world affairs and reflects a persistence of ethnocentric attitudes which are sure to prove increasingly counter-productive within a context of growing political and cultural interdependence. Downloaded by [University of Defence] at 21:28 19 May 2016 The perpetuation of stereotyped images is, unfortunately, fostered not only by insular attitudes at home but also by forms of revivalism abroad that all too often conform to those images and thus enhance them in the Western mind. The post-colonial attempt to find and assert an identity rooted in Islamic consciousness and sustained by Islamic values has led many Muslims to adopt and to advocate precisely those attitudes and modes of action that correspond most closely to the more extreme Western stereotypes: rigid application of the religious law, fanaticism towards non-believers, even advocacy of a holy war against secularism and westernization or the 'Great Satan'. The positive ix Introduction elements of the Islamic revival are, for many in the West, understandably veiled by the negative images of strident fundamentalism, obscurantism, religious chauvinism, and rejectionism. Outside the realm of the popular media, the situation is better but far from ideal. At the farther end of the spectrum, important advances have been made in the field of Islamic and Middle East studies (1), notably in the increasing concern of scholars with empirical data that often leads to conclusions radically different to those reached through prescriptive, text-based research. The application within the field as a whole of techniques and methods developed earlier by historians, economists, sociologists, anthropologists, and others and the gradual shift from amateurism and polymathism to a more specialized professionalism have led to important changes in perspective· and direction. At the same time, the criticisms directed by Jacques Waardenburg, Edward Said and others (2) against 'orientalism' and, in particular, the charge that orientalists have been concerned less with empirical reality than with their own vision of what the Orient or Islam should be, have introduced new elements of doubt and self-questioning or defensiveness into the field. To the extent that criticisms of this kind are justified, such questioning can only be to the good, but there are serious dangers that, in rejecting the orientalist tradition outright, some modern scholars may discard much that was valuable along with the less desirable.